Touch panels have been of wide applications in the fields of household appliances, communications, and electronic information appliances. An example of the common applications of the touch panel is an input interface of a personal digital assistant (PDA), an electrical appliance, or a game machine, etc. The current trend of integration of a touch panel and a display panel allows a user to use his or her finger or a stylus to point a control icon shown on the panel in order to execute a desired function on a PDA, an electrical appliance or a game machine, etc. The touch panel is also applied in a public information inquiry system to provide an efficient operation system for the public.
A conventional touch panel comprises a substrate having a surface on which sensing zones are distributed for sensing a signal associated with the touch of a user's finger or stylus to effect input and control. The sensing zones are made of transparent conductive membranes, such as Indium Tin Oxide (ITO), whereby a user may touch the transparent conducive membrane corresponding to a specific location shown on the display to effect operation of the device.
The most commonly known types of touch panels include resistive panel, capacitive panel, infrared sensing panel, electromagnetic sensing panel, and sonic sensing panel. The capacitive touch panel employs a change in capacitance caused between a transparent electrode and the electrostatics of human body to induce a current based on which the touch location can be identified. The capacitive touch panel is advantageous in light transparency, hardness, precision, response time, touches cycles, operation temperature, and initiation force and is thus most commonly used currently.
In order to detect the location where a finger or a stylus touches the touch panel, a variety of capacitive touch panel techniques are developed. An example is U.S. Pat. No. 6,970,160, which discloses a lattice touch-sensing system for detecting a position of a touch on a touch-sensitive surface. The lattice touch-sensing system may include two capacitive sensing layers, separated by an insulating material, where each layer consists of substantially parallel conducting elements, and the conducting elements of the two sensing layers are substantially orthogonal to each other. Each element may comprise a series of diamond shaped patches that are connected together with narrow conductive rectangular strips. Each conducting element of a given sensing layer is electrically connected at one or both ends to a lead line of a corresponding set of lead lines. A control circuit may also be included to provide an excitation signal to both sets of conducting elements through the corresponding sets of lead lines, to receive sensing signals generated by sensor elements when a touch on the surface occurs, and to determine a position of the touch based on the position of the affected bars in each layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,233,522 discloses a capacitive touch panel comprising an array of touch sensitive switch cells. Each switch cell includes a first and a second pair of series connected capacitors energized by a common signal source, the array of switch cells being arranged so that the first pair of capacitors are connected in first groups of switch cells, such as rows, to a corresponding first plurality of signal detectors, and the second pair of capacitors are connected in second groups of switch cells, such as columns, to a corresponding second plurality of signal detectors, the junctions of each pair of capacitors of a single switch cell being selectively coupled to ground by the body or other touch capacitive means for actuating a selected switch cell.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,222 discloses a capacitance variation sensitive touch sensing array system including an array of electrodes, an array of drive lines, a drive signal generator, and an array of sense lines. Each electrode is a connected series of conductive tabs and forms either a row or a column of the electrode array. Each drive line is capacitively coupled to a plurality of the electrodes. The drive signal generator generates and applies alternating signal packets to the drive lines. The sense line is capacitively coupled to a plurality of the electrodes so that signals are derived from the electrodes when drive signals are applied to the drive lines. The number of electrodes is equal to the product of the number of drive lines and the number of sense lines. Based on values derived from signals on the sense lines, a microprocessor provides information associated with touch by an operator.
U.S. Pat. No 5,880,411 discloses a method for recognizing a position made by a conductive object on a touch-sensor pad. Signals are sent to a control circuit of a host to identify the touch position. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,414,671 and 5,374,787 disclose the same technique.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,030,860 discloses a transparent, capacitive sensing system particularly well suited for input to electronic devices. The capacitive sensor can further be used as an input device for a graphical user interface, especially if overlaid on top of a display device like an LCD screen to sense finger position and contact area over the display.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,459,463 discloses a device for locating an object situated close to a detection area and a transparent keyboard incorporating the device. The device comprises a first set of detection zones connected so as to thin lines which extend parallel to each other and to a detection area, a second set of detection zones connected to each other so as to form columns which extend perpendicularly to the lines, a scanning device which applies an electric signal to the lines and columns, and means for determining the position of an object by means of the scanning device.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,498,590 discloses a multi-user touch system including a surface on which antennas are formed. A transmitter transmits uniquely identifiable signals to each antenna. Receivers are capacitively coupled to different users, and the receivers are configured to receive the uniquely identifiable signals. A processor then associates a specific antenna with a particular user when multiple users simultaneously touch any of the antennas.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,847,690 discloses a unitary display and sensing device, which integrates liquid crystal display module elements of a liquid crystal display module for detecting input on a flat panel display screen.
All the prior art references described above provide teaching of detection touch of a user on a touch panel and all are comprised of structures of touch sensing elements. However, these known devices are all of a construction including two capacitive sensing layers spaced from each other with an insulation material to effect capacitive effect between the layers. This makes the structure of the panel very thick and is thus against the trend of miniaturization. Further, the conventional capacitive touch panel comprises a substrate on both surfaces of which two capacitive sensing layers are formed respectively. In this respect, through holes must be formed on the substrate to serve as vias and circuit layering must be adopted to properly connect conductor elements of the sensing layers. This complicates the manufacturing of the capacitive touch panel.
Thus, it is desired to have a capacitive touch panel that overcomes the above drawbacks of the conventional capacitive touch panels.